GDHQNBA15_2pg-Milwaukee Bucks

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EASTERN CONFERENCE
CENTRAL DIVISION
Milwaukee
While there weren’t very many people who had high hopes for the
Milwaukee Bucks as contenders last year, it was hard to imagine just
how bad they would be. There were plenty of players the Bucks
could point to as rising talents: Larry Sanders, Ersan Ilyasova and John
Henson among them. Milwaukee didn’t have any true superstars, but
the idea that they could make the Eastern Conference playoffs didn’t
seem far-fetched.
As it turned out, in a league with a bunch of teams tanking for draft
picks, it was Milwaukee who finished with the League’s worst record
at 15-67. Sanders was injured and involved in multiple incidents off the
court. Ilyasova was also injured and not the same player when he was
in the lineup. Offseason acquisitions didn’t work. The result was a team
that was a total mess on both ends of the court and an overall disaster.
Defense
Silver linings are hard to find from the Milwaukee season last year.
One of them is obviously the selection of Jabari Parker with the second
overall pick. Another was the play of rookies Nate Wolters and Giannis
Antetokounmpo. Wolters improbably finished with the fifth highest
defensive Real-Plus Minus rating among NBA point guards last year
at +1.57. Antetokounmpo is an extremely young player with a lot of
promise, but he was equal parts talented and raw last season.
The best overall defender on the Bucks is Sanders, a lean big man
with tremendous athleticism and superb shotblocking ability. However,
Sanders is known for having a short temper, a personality trait that
really hurt him last year. Sanders tore a ligament in his thumb during
a nightclub altercation last year; that and a fractured orbital suffered
against James Harden limited him to just 584 minutes, effectively taking
Milwaukee’s best defender out of their rotation.
The remaining players simply
were not good. John Henson
had a very disappointing season;
while he produced a good PER
of 17.4, that number is not a
good reflection of how poorly
he actually played. Henson was
mostly abused by opponents in
the post and his offensive game
was relatively limited.
O.J. Mayo also struggled badly
as the new shooting guard in the
Milwaukee lineup. Mayo has never
been a plus defender but his flaws
were exacerbated by the lack of
rim protection behind him. The
same could be said of Brandon
Knight, a player who has never
quite turned the corner at the point
guard position.
I l yasova may have been
Milwaukee’s best defender, which
just goes to show how poor
Milwaukee’s defense was last
season. The Bucks ranked dead
last in defensive rating at 111.8.
There wasn’t a single aspect of
defense Milwaukee was good at
last season. Their biggest flaw was
their tendency to leave shooters wide open, as opponents shot a
staggering 38.2 percent from three-point range against the Bucks.
New head coach Jason Kidd will find coaching defense in Milwaukee
to be a much tougher task than anything he had to deal with in Brooklyn.
While the return of Sanders should help, the Bucks simply lack any
plus defenders other than him. There’s no reason to think Milwaukee’s
defense will be anything other than a mess again this year.
Offense
There are a few ingredients necessary to produce an effective NBA
offense. First, and most importantly, teams need a superstar. There are
only so many of those to go around, but having a single player who
can create shots and demand double teams goes a long way towards
opening up an offense. Second, teams need players who can knock
down outside shots. Third, teams need a low-post scoring presence,
and fourth, teams need a player who can run the point and set up
teammates with well-timed passes.
The Bucks don’t have the superstar. Ilyasova struggled badly last
year as he was injured and then ineffective. Knight was their top scorer
with 17.9 points per game, but he was far from an efficient player.
Giannis Antetokounmpo
Ned Dishman/NBAE/Getty Images